


To Answers

by TrishaCollins



Series: Babysitting And Other Royal Duties [14]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Ardyn is a dick, Bad Science, Clarus being gruntled, Cor doesn't see the point of intercourse, Dad!Cor, Gen, Noctis sleeps through this entire thing, Verstael? Also a dick., dad!Regis, including the lap betrayal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-06
Updated: 2019-03-06
Packaged: 2019-11-12 15:11:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18013265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrishaCollins/pseuds/TrishaCollins
Summary: Prompto does something odd and Cor finally gets answers.





	To Answers

Prompto walked out of the darkness, eyes backlit oddly until they finished adjusting.

One of the guards was alert enough to notice him and start to lift his weapon before Clarus stopped him. "Are we certain that toddler doesn't have tracking capabilities? How does he always know where you are?"

He bent down, scooping the boy up. He was barefooted and had scrapes on his hands, probably from climbing. "Nothing indicated that he should."

Regis laughed softly, hand on Noctis' sleeping head. "Good evening, Prompto. How are you?"

"Should have brought my kid." Clarus muttered.

"Mwsty." Prompto responded, which made his chest tighten with pride. "Gwd. Wan Cw."

"And now it seems you have found him. What shall you do?"

Prompto looked at him, one tiny hand tugging on his ear, clearly speculating on what one did when they found the person they were looking for.

"How did he even get in here? He couldn't have gotten a ride in the elevator. He needs security clearance." Clarus asked, studying the child intently. “Unless you and the director updated his clearance when I wasn’t looking.” 

"Sixty stories and you can even keep a toddler out." Regis teased, lifting his glass. "A toast to you, Prompto, for always knowing where you want to be."

"Tank oo." Prompto said, settling his head on his shoulder as he carried him back to the circle of light to get a better look at the scrapes.

"Seriously. He finds you in the weirdest places." Clarus said, sitting down. "Feel like we should crack open the book and poke around."

"Sh. Don't talk about that stuff around him."

Clarus rolled his eyes. "Look, man. You steal him and clearly he imprinted on you. You keep trying to give him to other people and he somehow tracks you? I would want to know how he manages myself."

"Wan Cw." Prompto said quietly against his shoulder.

"I know, kid. But you scare the crap out of your mom." He was running fingers over the downy little head. "We can check another time. I should call Lulu, let her know he slipped out again.”

Clarus huffed, grinning and leaning into the fire light. “First name now? Huh?”

He shot his friend a glare. “Despite your…insulations to the contrary. Director Palmello and myself are merely colleagues, our interests bridge where Prompto’s wellbeing is concerned, no more, no less.” 

“Can’t you at least give it a chance?” Clarus whined. “We’ve been trying to set you up for years!” 

“I have ‘given it a chance’.” He retorted.

Regis’ eyebrows shot up, and Clarus choked on nothing.

“Well? You can’t just leave us hanging like that, buddy.” Clarus said.

He shrugged, bouncing the child in his arms. “It seemed a great deal of effort for very little reward, and I can think of other, better ways to work up a sweat if I sought exertion. It made the conversations afterwards uncomfortable.”

“Who was it? That girl back in Kaim?” Clarus asked, leaning forward.

He rolled his eyes. “Not someone you know.” 

“Oh come on, Cor, you can’t just bring something like that up and pretend that it isn’t interesting. When was it? How long ago?”

“Clarus.” Regis shook his head, giving his shield a look of mild reproach. “Enough, leave him be. Not all are as concerned with the pleasures of the flesh as you are.”

Clarus was still muttering to himself. 

Regis tapped him in the leg with his cane. “I find myself pondering another matter, if you two will indulge me for a moment.”

He would have taken a change in topic from Aldercapt himself, and Regis was far saner with his choices. “Please. Anything.” 

“What color- Ow.” Clarus rubbed his leg. “Are you trying to hobble me?”

Regis pointed at the chair. “The next time it will be a sword, sit.”

 

Clarus sat down, sulking. 

He sat as well, though the order had not been aimed at him.

“Noctis can find me anywhere in the Citadel, much to the consternation of his minders. He can also locate the guards he most prefers, even if they are off duty. He traces the crystals magic, and the unique flavor each person connected to it brings to it.” Regis explained, stroking his son’s hair. “It is something of a familial trait.”

“But Prompto isn’t Lucian. Much less Luci Lucian. He’s Verstael Besithia’s child, genetically.” Clarus said, quiet, glancing at Prompto. “Gladio’s got more potential for royal blood than he does. No offence, Cor.”

“None taken, I am common born myself and find it hardly limits me at all.” He returned, dry. 

Prompto was half dozing against his shoulder.

Clarus snorted, rolling his eyes. 

Regis held up a hand, preventing the bickering from starting anew. “Primarily yes, but I recall meeting another man with Verstael not so long ago.” Regis commented. 

Silence, he could see the pinch of Clarus brow. 

Cor grimaced, tightening his arms around the toddler in his arms. “You think he used…his genetic material in Prompto?”

Clarus made a disgusted face. “Who would want to curse a kid with that?” 

“I think that the Vertael Betsithia I met would experiment on his own mother if he thought it would further the black science he probed.” Regis said darkly, lips pressed into a line. “It would explain how he finds you, and also how he reaches you. A latent ability that he summons only when his need is greatest. We knew there was something Daemonic of origin, and that creature…”

Clarus shuddered and rubbed his shoulder, clearly remembering their last battle against the creature known as Ardyn.

“There is an easy way to test if I am right.” 

He shifted backwards with Prompto, drawing his arms more firmly around him.

Regis smiled. “It will not hurt him, I swear to you, old friend. I did it with Noct when he was days old to test if the ability dwelled within him. No harm, perhaps a little bit of magic.”

He considered, looking down at the child. Prompto was watching a moth, utterly uninterested in the conversation now that he had reached his goal.

“Clarus, would you mind holding Noctis? I am afraid two toddlers is one too many for this royal lap.” 

Clarus shifted the boy to his own shoulder, rocking Noct absently when it seemed like the child might wake in protest. He could only imagine the epic fit that might be thrown when Noctis discovered another toddler in his father’s lap. Noctis was possessive. 

“Prompto.” Regis said gently, holding out his hands.

Prompto looked up at him, clearly doubtful about this change in arrangements. 

“It’ll be alright, I’m not leaving.” He lifted him, passing him carefully to Regis, regretfully prying his fingers away when he tried to hold on.

Prompto pouted. 

“Only for a moment, little friend.” Regis wiggled his fingers, and then drew a light from behind Prompto’s ear. “What have we here?”

Still doubtful, Prompto looked at Cor, then back at the light. “Ltah.” 

Clarus snorted. “He’s starting to sound more like Cor.” 

“Very good. Now, Prompto, I’m going to make the light reappear. You have a good feeling for it now? Can you make it reappear?” The light went out.

He could see Prompto’s brow furrowing, nose squinting up as he thought about it.

“How’d you get Noct to follow directions that young?” Clarus asked. 

“I presented him to the crystal, its mostly reflex at that age. Prompto is a little old for the reflex test, and I would worry that exposing him to the crystal could harm him if there is daemonic influence coded into his DNA.” Regis explained, watching Prompto intently. 

“What if you’re wrong?” He asked, leaning forward. 

“Then I’m wrong and we look for another reason that he is able to find you. But. Ah.” The light reappeared, flashing brightly and vanishing. “I am not wrong. Very well done my little friend.”

Prompto scowled. “It go.”

“It did. It takes a lot of practice to get it to stay. Then you get lines like there.” Regis tapped one of the lines near his eyes. “So better not to try too hard.”

Prompto looked properly horrified at that. “Cw!” 

Regis, laughing, handed the baby back. 

He resettled him against his shoulder, rocking him gently. 

“Don’t scare him.” Clarus said, clearly amused. “So.” 

“So.” Regis looked thoughtful. “I suppose that we should welcome him into the family proper, then. He was right. He is of the Lucian Caelum line, even if much removed.”

“Gods, that catches in the throat, doesn’t it? Thinking that bastard was right about anything!” Clarus grumbled, giving Noctis back to his father. “What do we do?”

“Well. Nothing to do. Watch him, surely, but we’re already doing that.” Regis smiled. “At least it weans of us the fear that his ability is entirely daemonic.”

He shifted Prompto in his arms, staring between them. “We were concerned about that?”

“It had come up.” Regis admitted with a shrug. “The notes mentioned heightened resistance and Daemonic blood being used in his creation. However, that Verstael was merely experimenting with something already extant is a little more reassuring. Even if the thought of the Accursed siring anything makes my stomach twist.” 

“Were you two ever going to mention that to me?” He asked, clutching Prompto closer.

Regis and Clarus exchanged one of their looks. 

Regis shrugged. “What would it have done, save to worry you, Cor? The child was in the best possible place for us to observe him. It did nothing to share our fears. Which have now been proved unfounded.” 

He bit back some snarly coment.

Clarus got up and poured them all a drink. “A toast to useless assholes somehow finding the right answer?” He suggested.

“To old fools and the younger generation.” Regis corrected.

To answers, finally, he prayed in his mind.


End file.
